1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus and an inkjet recording method for recording an image on a recording medium by using an inkjet recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-178378 describes a full-line inkjet recording apparatus that includes a recording head and a conveying mechanism for conveying a recording medium. In the recording head, nozzle arrays (chips), each having a plurality of nozzles, are arranged in a staggered manner. The full-line inkjet recording apparatus performs recording over the entire width of a recording medium.
In general, overlapping portions exist in a full-line recording apparatus, because a plurality of chips are arranged in a staggered manner. The overlapping portions perform recording using two chips. Therefore, if the density balance between the two chips is not correct, the density of an image formed by these chips may become non-uniform, which reduces the quality of the image. Such a non-uniform density may be inconspicuous for a monochrome image. However, if the overlapping portions are disposed at the same position for different colors, an imbalance in the density is exaggerated and easily recognized as a non-uniform density.
In contrast, in the recording apparatus describe in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-178378, the overlapping portions for different colors are separated from each other in the nozzle array direction, so that the effect of a non-uniform density described above is reduced.
However, in order to avoid overlapping of the recording heads for all colors, the length of the recording heads is increased in the nozzle array direction, which may increase the size of the recording apparatus.